Sunday, September 19, 2010

Raleigh Farmers Market

Saturday morning we headed to the Raleigh state Farmers Market to see what it was all about. I have been to a few other farmers markets but I have to say this is one of the best I have been to. It is HUGE and you just can't beat the prices on fresh fruits and veggies. I love the colors of the farmers market.

Bright red tomatoes and peppers, orange peaches and pumpkins, green cucumbers, yellow squash...its so vibrant!

The Raleigh farmers market also has a huge selection of house and outdoor plants. The prices were reasonable compared to lowes or home depot but somethings seemed a bit over priced. I am not a frequent buyer of plants though so I am probably not the best judge.

If you are looking for a great place to get LARGE pumpkins this fall you should definitly try the farmers market. They had massive pumpkins for $8-12. The pumkins were all very pretty and round and great for carving. They also had varities of pumpkins that I have never seen before. White pumpkins, light green pumpkins, pumpkins with bumps all over them  (the farm owner told us these were called "Goose-bumps" haha) and all kinds of gords and mini-pumpkins. These odd varities would make a great fall display on your front porch or dinning room table.

We ended up buying a few different things. First were the juiciest, yummiest tomatoes I have ever had. One was a German Johnson tomato and one was a Cherokee Purple tomato. They made the best BLT's! We also bought some fresh basil because we are big basil fans but can not seem to grow it ourselves even though everyone says its the easiest thing to grow. We bought some string beans for 99 cents that I plan on cooking tomorrow night (I will let you know how they turn out). We probably tried about 10 different kinds of peaches and about 15 different kinds of apples but did not end up buying any of those. They were REALLY good though. I think it must be peach season because there seemed to be an abundance of peaches.

The farmers market also has a section called the "Market Shoppes" which is an enclosed building that has a lot of canned items, home grown dried spices and lots of diary products. We tried some great goat cheese and salsa's. The even had a salsa that was made with strawberrys. I know it sounds weird, but don't knock it till you try it...its yummy!

There are two restaurants at the farmers market, one is the Seafood restaurant and one is theState Farmers Market Restaurant. We walked into the Seafood restaurant and it was packed and smelled amazing. We plan to go back and try them both at some point...that will be another post!

I think the farmers market is a great thing to do on a Saturday morning and if you are in to eating fresh foods, you really can not beat the deals you are getting here. And the freshness is something you just can't get at the grocery store. There is also a North Raleigh farmers market that we have heard good things about so I would like to go to that one and see how it compares to the state market. Overall though we had a great experice and we will be going back again soon!

































Thanks for stopping by the blog! I plan on doing a restaurant review later this week about Cafe Luna...so stay tuned for that!

Have a great week everyone:)
xoxo

6 comments:

Lordeeme said...

Great pics of the farmer's market. Looks like a great one!

Anonymous said...

wow - good review and good pictures - you covered lots of topics. I look forward to your next post!

Marjorie said...

Looks like it was a big market! I'm glad you guys were able to find some yummy food!

Love the look of the blog, too! Great job!

Jennie said...

April, love this post. now I'm hungry!! Beautiful photography! Your entire blog is so sweet! Hope you're settling in nicely in Raleigh!

Ginny said...

Yay Raleigh! This is bringing back so many fun memories for me :) And yes, Cafe luna is amazing so I can't wait to see your post on that!

Tara said...

We have a farmer's market down here in Greenville, but I'm a bad new resident and have yet to go ::sheepish grin:: I don't think it's as big as the one you went to up there in Raleigh, though! Pretty sure ours doesn't have any sort of indoor area/market shops.